New to the Neighbourhood

Plaza Guadalajara
1626 McCullough Avenue

(at Myrtle Street)

Which is better for the neighbourhood, a derelict vacant building or yet another Tex-Mex restaurant? Well, that's an easy one. Clearly we're better off having that fourth or fifth Tex-Mex restaurant, especially since the proud owners of the place have done such a nice job rehabilitating an old commercial space. What they've put in has a nice coat of terra-cotta paint and a large parking lot on the outside; on the inside, they've given us a traditional San Anto space, brightly lit with natural and artificial light, and with hard floor and nothing to dull the sound from other tables. I noticed that particularly this morning because of a crying baby across the large-ish dining room. But you get used to the noise and it doesn't really intrude; still, the place could really use something -- a few wall hangings, a half-wall; something to deaden some of the ambient sound.

last city inspection, 10/18: score 84

The menu is extensive and features all the expected Tex-Mex dishes for lunch and dinner; the breakfast menu is less extensive, but still indicates that all the traditional Tex-Mex dishes are available. For comparison purposes, I chose the machacado plate, priced at $8.  It came with papas fritas and refritos. The potatoes were cut in thick chunks and were slightly undercooked, despite having a nice bit of crunch about the edges. The beans had an odd reddish colour, and there was something unusual about the flavour, but I couldn't place the source of the variance. I won't say it was bad in any way, just different, which made the beans interesting without making them better than usual.

The machacado itself was plentiful and nicely cooked, with lots of onion and pepper and beef in the egg mix. Unfortunately, the cook was equally liberal with the salt, to the point where it was almost unbearably salty. The tortillas (I chose corn) were made in-house and had excellent texture, holding together well even when loaded with filling.  Their flavour was good.

Service was slightly above average overall.